Who knew moft Sentences, was deepest read: COMMENTARY. VER. 444. Scotus. He fuffer'd a miferable reverfe of fortune at Oxford in the time of Henry viii. That grave Antiquary Mr. Antony Wood (in the vindication of himself and his works from the reproaches of the Bil hop of Salisbury) fadly laments the deformation, as he calls it, of that Univerfity by the King's Commiffionners: and even records the blafphemous fpeeches of one of them in his own Words We have fet DUNCE in Boccardo, with all his blind Gloffers, ,,faft nailed up upon pofts in all common houses of easement. Upon which our venerable Antiquary thus exclaims.,, If fo be, the Commiffioners had fuch disrespect for that most famous Au,,thor. J. Duns, who was fo much admired by our predecessors, ,,and SO DIFFICULT TO BE UNDERSTOOD, that the ,,Doctors of thofe times, namely Dr. William Roper, Dr. John ,,Kynton, Dr. William Mowfe etc. profeffed, that, in twenty eight ,,years ftudy, they could not understand him rightly, what then had they for others of inferior note.,, What indeed! But then, If fo be, that most famous J. Duns was fo difficult to be understood (for that this is a moft claffical proof of his great value, is paft doubt.) I fhould conceive our good old Antiquary to be a little mistaken. And that the nailing up this Proreus was done by the Commiffioners in honour of the most famous Duns: There being no other way of catching the sense of fo flippery an Author, who had cluded the parfuit of three of their most renowned Doctors, in full cry after him, for twenty eight years together. And this Boccardo in which he was confined, feemed very proper for the purpofe, it being obferved, that men are never more ferious and thoughtful than in that place. SCRIBL. Scotifts.) So denominated from Johannes Duns Ihid. Thomifts,) From Thomas Aquinas, a truly great Genius who was, in thofe blind ages, the fame in Theology that Friar Bacon was in natural Philofophy: lefs happy than our Countryman in this, that he foon became furrounded with a number of dark Gloffers, who never left him till they had extinguished the Amidst their kindred cobwebs in Duck-lane. If Faith itfelf has diff'rent dreffes worn, 445 What wonder modes in Wit fhould take their turn? Oft', leaving what is natural and fit, The current folly proves the ready wit; 450 Which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to laugh. Some valuing thofe of their own fide or mind, Still make themselves the measure of mankind: VARIATIONS. VER. 447. Between this and v 448. The rhyming Clowns that gladded Shakespear's age, Who now in Anagrams their Patron praise, Or fing their Mistress in Acroftic lays? And authors thought their reputation safe, Which liv'd as long as fools were pleas'd to laugh. COMMENTARY. VER. 452. Some valuing those of their own fide or mind, etc.) 3. The third and laft inftance of partiality in the learned, is Party and Faction. Which is confider'd from v 451 to 474. where he NOTES. radiance of that light which had pierced thro' the thickest night of Monkery, the thirteenth century, when the Waldenfes were fuppreffed, and Wickliffe not yer rifen. VER. 445. Duck-lane.) A place where old and fecond-hand books were fold formerly, near Smithfield. VER. 450. And Authors think their reputation' safe, which lives as long as fools are pleas'd to taugh.) This is a juft and admirable Satire on thofe we call Authors in fashion; for they are the men who get the laugh on their fide. He fhews, on how pitiful a bafis their reputation ftands, the changeling difpofition of fools to laugh; who are always carried away with the laft joke. 455 Fondly we think we honour merit then, Might he return, and blefs once more our eyes, COMMENTARY. 465 fhews how men of this turn deceive themselves, when they load a writer of their own fide with commendation. They fancy they are paying tribute to merit, when they are only facrificing to selflove. But this is not the worst. He further fhews, that this party fpirit has often very ill effects on Science itfelf; while, in fupport of Faction, it labours to deprefs fome rifing Genius, that was, perhaps, raifed by nature, to enlighten his age and country. By which he would infinuate, that all the bafe and viler passions feek refuge, and find support in party madness. NOTES. VER. 463. Milbourn.) The Rev. Mr. Luke Milbourn. Dennis ferved Mr. Pope in the fame office. And indeed the attendance of thefe flaves is neceifary to render the triumphs of a great Genius complete. They are of all times, and on all occa fions. Sir Walier Raleigh had Alexander Rofs, Chillingworth had bad Cheynel, Milton one Edwards, and Locke, another Edwards; neither of them related to EDWARDS of Lincola's Inn; They were Divines of parts and learning; This a Critic without either. Yet (as Mi. Pope fays of Luke Milbourn) the fairest of all critics ; for having written against the Editor's remarks on Shakespear, he did him juftice in printing at the fame time his own. For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known Be thou the first true merit to befriend; COMMENTARY. VER. 474. Be thou the first, etc.) The poet having now gone thro' the laft caufe of wrong Judgment, and root of all the reft, PARTIALITY; and ended his remarks upon it with detection of it's two rankeft kinds, thofe which arife out of partyrage and envy; takes the occafion which this affords him, of clofing his fecond divifion in the most graceful manner, (from v 473 to 560.) by concluding from the premises, and calling upon the TRUE CRITIC to be careful of his charge, which is the protection and fupport of Wit. For, the defence of it from malevolent cenfure is its true protection; and the illuftration of its beauties, is its true support. NOTES. VER. 468. For envy'd Wit, like Sol eclips'd, etc.) This fimis litude implies a fact too often verified; and of which we need not seek abroad for examples. It is, that frequently thofe very Authors, who have at firft done all they could to obscure and deprefs a rifing genius, have at length, in order to keep themfelves in fome little credit, been reduced to borrow from him, imitate his manner, and reflect what they could of his fplendor. Nor hath the Poet been lefs artful, to infinuate alfo what is fometimes the cause. A youthful genius, like the fun rifing to wards the Meridian, difplays too frong and powerful beams for the dirty genius of inferior writers, which occafions their gathering, condensing and blackening. But as he defcends from the Meridian (the time when the Sun gives its gilding to the furrounding clouds) his rays grow milder, his heat more benign, and then ev'n thofe clouds at laft adorn its way, Reflect new glories, and augment the day, Short is the date, alas, of modern rhyines, COMMENTARY. He firft fhews, the Critic ought to do this fervice without delay: And on thefe motives. 1. Out of regard to himself: For there is fome merit in giving the world notice of an excellence; but none at all in pointing, like an Idiot, te that which has been long in the admiration of men. 2. Out of regard to the Poem: For the fhort duration of modern works requires they fhould Begin to enjoy their existence carly. He compares the life of medern Wit, which, in a fleeting dialect, must pafs away, and of the ancient, which furvives in an universal language, to the difference between the Patriarchal age and our own: And obferves, that while the ancient writings live for ever, as it were in brass and marble, the modern are but like Paintings, which, of how masterly a hand foever, have no fooner gained their requifite perfection by the incorporating, foftening and ripening of their tints, which they do in a very few years, but they begin to fade and die away. 3. Laftly, our author fhews, that the Critic ought to do this fervice out of regard to the Poet; when he confiders the flender dowry the Muse brings along with her: In youth 'tis only a fhort lived vanity and in maturer years an accelfion of care and labour, in proportion to the weight of reputation to be susrained, and of the increafe of Envy to be opposed: And con cludes his reafoning therefore on this head, with that pathetic' and infinuating addrefs to the Critic, from 508 tó 524. Ah! let not learning, etc, NOTES. VER. 484. So when the faithful pencil, etc,) This fimili litude in which the poet difcovers (as he always does on this |